[tri-med] FYI - Rep. Panel Kills Special Ed Funds

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Friday November 30 3:23 PM ET

  Rep. Panel Kills Special Ed Funds

  By GREG TOPPO, AP Education Writer

  WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers on Friday stripped from their education
bill a proposal that would have guaranteed billions of dollars in
federal money each year for disabled students.

  The issue was among the few remaining to be worked out in the
education plan, which lawmakers hope to present to President Bush
(news - web sites) by the end of the year.

  The defeat leaves the future of special education funding uncertain.
Rep. John Boehner , R-Ohio, presented an alternative funding
proposal, but Senate Democrats defeated it.

  The Senate last spring approved the special education measure, which
would guarantee an annual $2.5 billion increase for the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, specifying that the money
be kept safe from the yearly appropriations process.

  The Senate measure would have mandated $8.8 billion next year for
special education programs; funding would reach just over $21 billion
in 2007, the last year of the guaranteed increases. The amendment was
sponsored by Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

  President Bush asked Congress to increase IDEA spending by $1
billion. House appropriators raised that to $1.4 billion, but the
money is not guaranteed to increase each year. Opponents of the
guaranteed new money said it could lead schools to place more
students in special education classes instead of getting them help in
regular classrooms.
  They also said the measure would not guarantee that disabled
students get the money they deserve, since it lets schools spend up
to half of the new dollars on other programs.

  The opponents of the Senate bill, led by Boehner and Sen. Judd Gregg
, R-N.H., said Congress should wait until 2002, when the special
education act is to be reauthorized.

  Friday's hearing of the bipartisan House-Senate conference
committee, which is producing the final education bill, was packed
with disabled students' advocates sporting red, white and blue
stickers that read ``Keep IDEA Strong.''

  Schools have long complained that the federal government requires
them to educate children with disabilities but doesn't give them
enough money for expensive evaluations, equipment and services.

  IDEA, enacted in 1975, called for Washington to provide 40 percent
of funding for disabled youngsters' education. This year the federal
government provided about 16 percent, or $6.3 billion. States and
school districts share a much larger burden.

  ``We're 25 years into our promise, folks, and we're 16 percent of
the way,'' said Rep. George Miller , D-Calif.

  He added later that denying the programs adequate funding won't make
the problems of disabled children disappear.

  ``These children, they do not throw down their crutches, they do not
get out of their wheelchairs,'' he said.

  About 6 million children receive special education funding, which
pays for school instruction and help for everything from dyslexia to
paralysis. The money also pays for the voluminous paperwork required
to keep track of children's progress.

  Vermont Sen. James Jeffords , a longtime special education advocate,
made increased funding his key demand in White House negotiations
over Bush's tax cut. Jeffords, an independent, cited the need for
more school spending when he left the Republican Party last May.

  Lawmakers on Friday ratified an agreement on funding bilingual
education programs. Lawmakers this week said they had dropped a
House-approved measure requiring students with limited English skills
to be taught in English after three consecutive years in a U.S.
school. Instead, students could be taught in English and their native
language, but would have to prove competence in English after three
years.


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